Opinions

Since when has terror lost its colour?

By Mushtaque Madni,
The Milli Gazette

Published Online: Feb 26, 2011

Print Issue: 1-15 February 2011

With the startling confessions of Swami Aseemanand before the Delhi Court Magistrate that clearly stunned the nation that all the bomb blasts, including the Samjhouta Express blast that amounts to international terrorism, were the handiwork of saffron terrorists, red faced media, print or otherwise, sophisticatedly though, seem to have rushed to the rescue of saffron terrorists. Jug Suraiya, a regular columnist of TOI, arguably a staunch defender of Hindutva, came out with an ‘enlightening’ column ‘Not Saffron or Green’ (11 Jan 2011). In his column, Suraiya categorically rejected the idea of labelling terrorism with any religion, caste, creed or colour. As if his ‘enlightening’ was not enough to hide the frustration, TOI, probably for the first time, carried an erudite editorial, emphasizing mainly on one point – that terror can’t be affiliated to any colour or religion and that terrorism is after all terrorism. In heated debates on electronic channels, the BJP spokespersons and champions of Hindutva, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Nirmala Sitharaman, after finding no scope to escape the harsh reality, said that a terrorist has no religion. Even on Marathi channels, staunch supporters of Hindutva ideology, humbly submitted that it is wrong rather absurd to identify terrorism with any colour or religion.

What made these ‘luminaries’ instantly change their earlier firm stand on terrorism that “All Muslims are not terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.” Till 2008, the terror, invariably, not only had colour but it had a religion and a particular community too. Overrated intellectuals, without understanding the doctrine and philosophy of ‘Terrorism’, that strictly demanded ‘larger than life ideology, system support, huge funds and public sympathy, that perfectly fitted saffron terror, tirelessly spoke about almost mythical Muslim terrorism. VHP general secretary Dr. Praveen Kumar Togadia who was to be questioned by Karkare, in all of his poisonous speeches, never failed to make a mention of Muslim terrorism. To add salt to the wounds, not a single media house or RSS leader or even so-called secularist ever tried to correct the incorrigible Togadia on the issue of terrorism. It was only when the slain ATS chief, Hemant Karkare, going against all odds, unearthed the huge syndicate of Hindu terror network, that involved serving as well as retired army officers, prominent sadhus and swamis and lo, a young Sadhvi too, did the media and RSS spokespersons come to know that terror is terror and is bound to be colourless. Not to mention the disgraceful attitude of general Hindus, who still continue to seek refuge in the time-tested philosophy of denial and ‘Conspiracy of Silence’, as was pointed out by Tehelka and Outlook magazines in their cover stories on Hindu terrorism. Tehelka in its recent issue (1st Jan 2011) went a step further by exposing still untouched names of Col. (retd) Hasmukh Patel, Col(retd) Shailesh Raikar, Col(retd) Aditya Bappaditya Dhar, Brigadier Mathur, Maj Nitin Joshi, Maj Prayag Modak, BL Sharma Prem (the president of the ‘World Hindu Federation’ and RP Singh, a close relative of Nepal’s King Gyanendra). They are believed to be involved in the conspiracy of bomb blasts and still have not been interrogated.

When it is proved beyond doubt that there exists a huge syndicate of Hindu Terror, with an anti-national ideology, supported by the system and mentored and inspired by the RSS ideology, as confessed by Aseemanand, why there still is calm and reluctance on the part of the Govt. in banning these terror organizations? Do the earlier proud but now embarrassed powerful Hindus in the Govt., media, judiciary and bureaucracy still nurture a soft corner for their co-religionist terrorist brethren? Congress Gen. Secretary Digvijay Singh reasoned with this ‘unreasonable’ demand that ‘banning RSS will not work’, for it not only has nationwide network but dozens of affiliated sister organizations in the country and that solution to saffron terror lies in crushing the ideology and not the organization. We, the vulnerable Muslims and a permanent soft targets of our ‘secular’ system, may ask Mr. Digvijay: how despite having no concrete proof against SIMI, it was banned several times and precisely on the ground of ideology? No sane person ever spoke either in favour of Muslims or SIMI. Does the ideology of powerful RSS, Abhinav Bharat or sanatan sanstha that reportedly have strong sympathizers in the system aspiring to subvert the constitution and establish an ‘Arya Vart Hindu Rashtra’ appears to be less harmful to the nation than the ideology of stray boys of SIMI? If so, we probably will have to have an exhaustive debate involving international experts on ideologies, as to how to define India as a ‘Secular State’.

mushtaque.madni[@]rediffmail[.]com

This article appeared in The Milli Gazette print issue of 1-15 February 2011 on page no. 2

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